Art Laffer, former economic adviser to Ronald Reagan, said that Donald Trump could bring down the national debt by selling U.S. government assets, including Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, the gold in Fort Knox and oil reserves.
In an interview on “CNN Newsroom” Monday, Laffer argued that Trump “does not want to cut taxes. He wants to cut tax rates to bring economic growth back in” to America.
Guest host Poppy Harlow asked Laffer how “realistic” it is for Trump to promise that he will eliminate the national debt over eight years if he is re-elected, suggesting that Trump “would have to cut the annual budget of $4 trillion in half.”
“Well, that’s not true, Poppy. He would not have to do that,” Laffer claimed.
Laffer then said that Trump would cut the national debt by using “asset sales.”
Adding, “You have all these properties, you have the post office, you have Camp Pendleton, which is worth $65 billion. There are all sorts of assets.”
Harlow interject, “Who are you going to sell it to?”
Laffer responded that “Southern California beachfront property is still going very nicely. You’ve got the oil reserves. You’ve got gold in Fort Knox. You’ve got all of these assets — it could probably bring down the national debt.
Again, Harlow interrupted, “I’m asking but who are you going to sell it to to eliminate $19 trillion in national debt?”
“Well, you couldn’t eliminate the whole 19 trillion with asset sales, but if you brought the budget back in, you got economic growth, you wouldn’t reduce it to zero, but you can make a huge hit. I mean the tax amnesty program by itself, Poppy, with a good tax plan could probably bring in $800 billion. I mean just past taxes being paid.”
“But he wants to cut taxes,” Harlow replied.
“You know, [Trump] wants to cut tax rates, Poppy. He does not want to cut taxes. He wants to cut tax rates to bring economic growth back in. He wants to bring jobs back into the United States by having a corporate tax of 15 percent versus the highest tax in the OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development]. And he’s completely right on that. And by the way, so is [crscore]Ted Cruz[/crscore] completely right on that. Everyone else is missing this.”